#The Hairless Mexican

[noirgasmweetheart]

Last night for my 36th birthday, my brain gave me an amusing dream.

I dreamed that I was watching a pre-code movie from the early '30s, with Peter Lorre. It had that fuzzy quality of movies from that era. Peter looked like his curly-haired General from "Secret Agent," minus the mustache. (Younger than Joel Cairo though.) He was wearing a plain gray suit and black necktie. And he was heavily pregnant.

The (other) father was a guy who didn't seem to be any actor I recognized, just a generic costar. Thin white guy around the same age as Peter here, a few inches taller, in a gray suit with a fedora.

They were at the hospital because Pete was having contractions. Pete was sitting in some weird proto-motor-chair. Or something. Both men were alight with excitement, showing no concern over where or how the hell this baby was supposed to come out.

Although I've never heard of a movie with this specific plotline, a pregnant man does seem like something a pre-code movie might do for shock value, that the bigoted Hayes Code would forbid. And Peter seems like the type of actor who'd star in something like that.

As for why I would dream this....I've never been pregnant, but I did just moved into a new apartment with a gorgeous film noir look to it, and I'm excited to begin a new phase in my life and start several creative projects. I suppose the dream reflects that excitement.

[soapkaars]

I have a headcanon

[heythereimashley]

Look at that hair

[angelamontoo]

Please answer honestly and don't let favouritism cloud your judgement

And feel free to explain how they survive and/or say who you think dies first in the notes and tags

[peterlorrefanpage]

Muwahahahaha, a sinister Halloween to you!

Peter Lorre - Secret Agent (1936). The eyes of that man slay me but good.

This movie is another early Hitchcock, and the second time Lorre worked with him. It's set during WWI, and the plot involves a British captain who, mistakenly presumed dead, agrees to undertake a secret mission to eliminate a German agent heading to Arabia. The erstwhile captain gets a known killer as his assistant, who is called both "the General" and "the Hairless Mexican," though that person is none of these things. On purpose.

So, naturally, that role is played by Peter Lorre.

It's a bizarre film. And it's worth watching just to see Peter Lorre take his General character through amazing combustions, clever intrigues, bawdy humor, and a completely happy immorality when it comes to little things like murder.

I've posted my slo-mo gif before but I cannot resist posting it again:

The way Lorre could telegraph his thoughts without saying a damn word - gahhh.

Have some more scenes and stills:

Dig that coat! The General being all suave and nonchalant here in the chocolate factory, where a rather fantastic scene is about to go down.

Peter Lorre with a profile John Barrymore would envy, with John Gielgud and Madeleine Carroll.

Robert Young has joined us now (seated at the table).

Another touch of slo-mo to catch Lorre's superb forehead at the start and of course the eyes. :)

You'd take a stroll along a mountainside with the General, wouldn't you?

A devastating arch.

Some background, taken from The Lost One: A Life of Peter Lorre:

"Hitchcock was making this film from Somerset Maugham’s Ashenden stories, based on the author’s own experiences as an agent of the British Intelligence Division of the army in World War I. They chose to develop 'The Hairless Mexican' and considered Lorre ideal for the name part. Maugham’s 'hairless Mexican' is just that, hairless and Mexican. However, in the film he is called that 'chiefly because he’s got a lot of curly hair and isn’t a Mexican.' Lorre was glad he would not have to make the supreme tonsorial sacrifice twice in six months.

"Hitchcock put Lorre’s 'extremely deceptive' screen personality to use. Knowing that humor made his menace more powerful—and ambiguous—the director and his screenwriter Charles Bennett wittingly built on the legacy of sexual pathology in M and The Man Who Knew Too Much."

Review from New Republic’s Otis Ferguson: "He is one of the true characters of the theatre, having mastered loose oddities and disfigurements until the total is a style, childlike, beautiful, unfathomably wicked, always hinting at things it would not be good to know.

"His style is most happily luminous in the intense focus and supple motion of movie cameras, for the keynote of any scene can be made visual through him. In close-ups, it is through the subtle shifts of eyes, scalp, mouth lines, the intricate relations of head to shoulders and shoulders to body. In medium shots of groups, it is through his entire motion as a sort of supreme punctuation mark and underlineation. A harmless statement is thrown off in a low voice, and it is felt like the cut of a razor in Lorre, immediately in motion—the eyes in the head and the head on his shoulders and that breathless caged walk raising a period to double exclamation points. Or the wrong question is asked, and the whole figure freezes, dead stop, and then the eventual flowering of false warmth, the ice within it."

—

For me, the end falls down considerably, and I think the censors had something to do with why the General was served the way he was. Personally, I think it's unrealistic for the character. But yeah: Watch it anyway. 😁

[faustiandevil]

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I’m not done terrorizing the tag yet. This one is mainly for me, because when I saw who the dub voice was for this one I had to look it up immediately. The name is not gonna mean anything to anyone outside of this small terrible country, but it’s Imre Csuja, who is currently famous for playing everyone’s favourite corrupt mayor (only in a TV show not in real life), who would rather be fishing then doing paperwork (and you know what I get it, I hate administrative work as well). So yeah, hearing his voice come out of the General is giving me whiplash lol.

The dub is fine-ish. I think there is just some weird technical issue, because it’s out of sync at times. Whoever was in charge, I have notes. Do better!! They also changed The General’s name for some reason to Alfredo Pantaleon Lopez Mendoza Dongozo (I could have used like Hungarian spelling to make this look worse probably, but I didn’t feel like it)… yeah I don’t get it either.

I will leave you all with this image from the TV show. No I will not be providing context. Good luck figuring it out~<3

[hometoursandotherstuff]

A family of Xolos, one of the most ancient dog breeds in the world, believed to have been around since the 'old world,' The Xoloitzcuintle is one of several breeds of hairless dogs. Origin: Mexico

[rumwik]

#doggust Day 24 - Xoloitzcuintli (Mexican hairless dog)

[stinkybrowndogs]

xoloitzcuintli and marigolds

[hashtag-xolo]

Such a snuggle bug

[alexiadraws]

Doggust day 3! The Mexican hairless, or Xolo. I loooove this breed! Got to draw one last year, which is pictured below :)

[noirgasmweetheart]

I might be onboard with the General being Joel Cairo, before he came out of the closet. He has the same hair and pinky ring! His obsession with women is so over-the-top, it just reeks of a gay man overcompensating. I'm not sure I ever saw Cairo as a killer, but then again he was dating one.

His death was never confirmed by anything besides the Hayes Code. His loyalties were also never clearly established; he wasn't British. He was either on loan from an allied country, or a mercenary for hire. If the latter, then the hunt for the Maltese Falcon was simply another job for him.

[soapkaars]

Been having a lot of dreams about Peter Lorre lately. In one he was teaching me how to be a beter assassin

[heythereimashley]

Hi all. I have added the Theater of War production and The Hairless Mexican to the TV/ Appearances folder. Message me or comment for the link ❤️

Shout-out to @heartofhubris for the link ❤️

[angelamontoo]

Peter characters/parodies medical issues. strange ask but I'm curious of your headcanons.

Huh! Good question.

Other than mentioning before on another ask that I can see most, if not all(living) lorre characters/caricatures having some form of iron deficiency, I can't say I've thought too much about potential medical issues for any of them.

I guess I can see Polo and Louie being very accident prone and ending up in hospitals and clinics more than most people due to bad luck and a tendency to have their heads in the clouds. The General probably gets a lot of injuries as a result of fights which he mostly instigates. Also its not an original headcanon of mine, but this seems like a good place to bring up @stillwaitin76 's idea of Cairo having chronic pain, which I appreciate for how it gives a practical reason for his cane and adds some extra depth to his personality and self image

As for caricatures; Slappy and Slippy both probably have a plethora of diseases and parasites from the stray animals they play with and Ren has rabies

[werewolfsister]

Art Fight 2024: Characters

Getting ready for July! I’m werewolfsister there, too ✨

Preparando para Art Fight ¡jaja es mi primera vez este año! Soy werewolfsister allí también ;)